I Can't Gain! Now What?

I'm in the Army, and I am 5'4", 153 lbs and have been stuck at this weight for 3-4 months. I take 1-AD, 8g of glutamine daily, Animal Pak as my multivitamin, and Amino Fuel. I take these in 4-week intervals, and lift six days a week isolating one muscle group a day doing 12-16 sets per day. I eat five good meals a day when I can, but being in the Army that is not always possible. What else can I do to gain more mass?

Well, you poor little baby you have not gained anything in 3-4 months. It takes me a whole year to add a measly 3 pounds of muscle, so do not feel bad brother. Another thing that you have to look at is the possibility of your statement being false. How do you know that you have not gained anything? Are you using the mirror to assess your body on a weekly basis? Is an outside source looking at your physique on a weekly basis and giving you an experienced non-biased report? Are you getting your body fat levels tested to see if you have lost fat and gained muscle? This may equal out to a balance in weight you know. Or, are you just using a scale to weigh yourself and make judgments from there? I would bet money that you are only doing the last of the previous questions. This, my friend is the "wrong way" as Sublime would send out through a melody. Just because you have not gained weight on the scale does not mean a damn thing, it especially dose not mean that you have not gained muscle. Okay enough about that let us continue.

"I take 1-AD, 8g of glutamine daily, animal pak as my multivitamin, and amino fuel. I take these in 4 week intervals, and lift six days a week isolating one muscle group a day doing 12-16 sets per day."

Your supplementation scheme looks fine. The only supplement that I would cycle off of is the 1-AD. I would rest for at least four weeks to assure my natural hormonal system keeps working and to allow the receptors to open up again. I would use the rest of the supplements year round. Your lifting is all wacky in my books. I would lower that "12-16 sets per day" to an intense and effective 6 sets, maybe (I say again maybe) eight, but this is max. Use an Arthur Jones approach or AST's Max OT approach. I personally feel that these work better than the traditional way of lifting. These systems are less time consuming, effective, and promote muscle building. You can find information about them all over the Internet, just use a search engine or read about them on the Bodybuilding.com forum.

"I eat five good meals a day when I can, but being in the Army that is not always possible. What else can I do to gain more mass?"

You seem to be eating often enough, however when I am in my off-season I usually eat 8-12 times each day. I understand that I am a nationally qualified bodybuilder and this may be extreme, but the addition of one more small meal would not hurt you. I also know that it is hard to get the meals in when you are in the service. I served four years in the U.S. Navy. I remember being in the Persian Gulf and only being able to eat once maybe twice a day. My shipmates and I tried our best to put a stop to this and begun to carry small food items around in out utility coats. I would carry bars around with me everywhere I would go. I also always had a water bottle in my hand and a zip lock bag of protein powder was an easy way to keep the protein coming in. I feel for you man because I actually had to take five years off from bodybuilding because of the fact that I was serving our country. My only suggestion to you is to go out of your way to assure that you always have your food on you. By doing the following you should be able to pack on that growth of mass that you have missed for the past 3-4 months. Good luck!

littlekahuna69@hotmail.com

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